Offering Advertisers more than just Traffic?

Posted by Martin Jamieson | May 5, 2008 .

One of the problems facing a new blog (if you’re looking to earn some money from it), is that it’s hard to sell advertising space if you don’t have any traffic. Makes sense right - advertisers want to gain exposure to your market and they want real traffic that will buy their products or services.

But is immediate traffic all that you have to offer advertisers?

Ok, you might think I’ve completely lost the plot, and it’s quite possible that I have… this isn’t something I can give you concrete examples for - it’s not even something I’m planning to use on this blog (although I am planning to use it on a different project, and haven’t completely ruled it out here)… but I do think it is something worth considering, whether you have decent traffic stats or not.

Bundling a product or service with advertising

Could you produce something of value that companies looking to advertise on sites in your niche would be interested in besides just traffic? Could you bundle this with the prospect of your site traffic growing during the contract period?

Here’s several ideas of products/services that you could consider bundling as a value add for advertisers:

  • Market research - for new blogs, you could easily offer Keyword Analysis within your niche, if you already have a reasonable amount of traffic you could conduct surveys on your readers and share the results with your advertisers etc.
  • Site review - perhaps you have good web business experience? You could offer a detailed review of their websites from a usability perspective?
  • Coaching/Consulting - maybe offer a 1hr phone discussion with them on an area you have good expertise in?
  • Graphics design - if you know your way around Photoshop, how about offering them a free banner design they can use for all their advertising campaigns?

I’m sure you can think of plenty more, the idea is to look for a B2B (Business to Business) option that you can offer at reasonable cost, that will provide value and help differentiate your site.

How to sell it to advertisers

If you try this approach, keep in mind that the type of advertisers you’ll attract to this arrangement may not be the same companies that regularly buy advertising space in search of good converting traffic. You’ll need to focus your attention on finding companies that may benefit from the product/service that you’re bundling and have some interest in advertising in your niche.

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Don’t try to justify the advertising component in terms of expected Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost per 1000 Impressions (CPM). Focus on selling your advertising in monthly blocks where the advertiser has a banner placed on all pages.
  • Depending on how quick you expect your traffic growth to be, it might be a good idea to quote a monthly rate, but stipulate a contract term of 2 months will be required for all advertisers. This will give you a bit more time to build your traffic to a level where they may start to see an increase of traffic referrals to their site (giving you a better chance to sign them up for more advertising).
  • Depending on the product/service that you’re bundling, it may be a good idea to spread out those deliverables throughout the advertising period, say via a fortnightly newsletter? This will help remind them of the value you’re offering when it comes time for them to renew.

There’s plenty to think about. You may need to experiment before you find an offer that attracts the type of advertisers you’re looking for, but if you’re prepared to put in a bit of extra work I do believe this model has potential.

The downside is that you are potentially selling two mediocre products, and if that’s the case, don’t expect to see any repeat advertisers, even when you do start to get adequate traffic. On the other hand, If the product you bundle is high quality, then you may be able to make more money selling it directly.

By bundling your product/service with your advertising package, it allows you to sell it for a premium (probably more than your traffic component is worth) and gives you an opportunity to pitch it to a different type of customer. That’s where the value lies, can you use it?

Have you seen any websites offer deals like these to advertisers? What other products or services do you think would make sense to bundle? Perhaps you think the idea is just plain silly? Whatever your thoughts, I’d love to hear them - leave a comment and let me know.

(photo by mysza831)

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